By IANS,
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday called for an all-party meeting to resolve the stalemate in parliament over the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail issue.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters in Indore that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called her Monday morning and she asked him to hold an all-party meeting.
“Mukherjee told me that the government is interested in making a statement on the issue in the Lok Sabha,” she said. “I told him to convene an all-party meeting first, where the government should make its stand clear on the FDI row.”
She added that the party was firm on its stand that there should either be a rollback or a debate in parliament under adjournment motion entailing voting.
“Let the UPA government clarify its stand on FDI in retail. Only then the Lok Sabha would run smoothly. There would be no compromise on it,” she added.
Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke on the same lines.
“Both our leaders (Advani and Swaraj) conveyed to Pranab babu that they wanted a rollback of the FDI and the government should make its stand clear,” he told reporters.
“He said he will talk to the prime minister and revert. There has been no further communication from Pranab babu,” he added.
The finance minister’s attempts to resolve the deadlock come in the aftermath of parliament losing the whole of last week to adjournments on the issue of FDI in retail.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ally Trinamool Congress’s leader Mamata Banerjee Saturday said Mukherjee had assured her of putting the FDI decision on hold.